Westlawn school sale back on; new Morris P-8 construction could begin in 2015

Unitary status for Huntsville City Schools appears to be another step closer and construction of the new Morris P-8 three to four years sooner with the pending sale of Westlawn Middle School property to separate developers.

The Westlawn Middle School campus on Jordan Lane wraps around Fire Station No. 3. This is a view of the school from near the fire station's back patio. (Steve Doyle | sdoyle@al.com)

The sale of the 17 acres at Jordan Lane and Bob Wallace Avenue gives the school district the financial stability to move up the timetable of building the new Morris P-8 School. Construction of the new Morris will fill the district's requirements to improve facilities as part of its court-approved desegregation plan.

It speeds up the process by three or four years, said Superintendent Dr. Casey Wardynski, and the new Morris could be completed before the new Grissom is finished. It also tells the rest of the story as to why the school district wanted to sell the Stone Middle School property for a brewery development and not a retail developer, he said.

The Board of Education approved a new sale agreement with the City of Huntsville on Wednesday that removed Fire Station No. 3 on Jordan Lane from a previous agreement the board approved two weeks ago. The Huntsville City Council decided not to sign the agreement last week after raising safety concerns from closing the fire station.

The terms of the agreement are still much the same as previously. The school district will sell the Huntsville Center for Technology, Academy for Academics and Art (formerly Cavalry Heights) and the Seldon Center to the city for $4.5 million and property deed to the Columbia High School, a $15 million value.

The $4.5 million will be paid over a five-year period, beginning in July 2017. The school district wouldn't turn over the HCT property sooner than December 2016, until the culinary program has been moved.

The new agreement calls for the city to assign "joint use" of a 50-foot right of way next to the fire station. The joint use can be assigned to future owners. Additionally, the city will provide the demolition and debris removal of the old Morris Elementary after the new building is complete.

"There is considerable cost savings in having city do that for us," Jason Taylor, district's chief financial officer, said of the demolition.

To expedite the sale, the board gave Wardynski authority to contract with the developer that buys the property.

There are two developers interested in a 7-acre site, one of whom also was interested in the Stone Middle School property for a future grocery store/mixed use project. The school district and city has been criticized for not selling the Stone property to the grocery developer.

Wardynski said now the public can know why they didn't sell to the grocery developer, which offered more money.

Stone is being transformed into a brewery house and entertainment area for Yellowhammer and Straight to Ale breweries. The breweries only wanted the Stone site, to be closer to downtown, the superintendent said.

"The mixed-use shopping obviously, now, had two places, Stone or Westlawn, in mind," Wardynski said. "We knew that at the time. The brewery was only interested in Stone. So if we put in the mixed-use at Stone, it would have killed the brewery deal and we'd be stuck with Westlawn. Now we're looking at two properties moving forward."

Additionally, the school board announced it has received a letter of intent from a potential developer to buy the remaining 10 acres of Westlawn. The latter would not begin to renovate the property until Westlawn closes. The 7-acre site, however, can move forward, after the district relocates the gravel track

The revenue from selling both properties is vital to having the financial wherewithal to sell the bonds for building the new Morris, Wardynski said. The liquid financial resources will help defray the costs of new bonds, he said.

The new school will cost about $24 million, which is the price tag for the new Whitesburg P-8 that will be duplicated for Morris P-8. The board on Wednesday approved a school design agreement with Chapman Sisson Architects for $1.25 million.

Finance chief Taylor noted that Chapman Sisson had made the plans for Whitesburg P-8, and re-using those plans saved the district about $300,000.

"We would have probably have had to wait three or four more years before we could build Morris," Wardynski said. "Ideally, we'll (now) be ready for construction, where it could be done at the same time or even before Grissom."

Grissom is expected to open in August 2017.

Westlawn Middle will operate at about half capacity next school year after one of its feeder schools, McDonnell Elementary, is shifted to Whitesburg P-8. Huntsville Junior High also is taking students away from Westlawn as part of the desegregation plan. The new Morris P-8 will serve students at the existing Morris and Ridgecrest elementary schools and Westlawn.

The district can apply to the U.S. Justice Department for unitary status, perhaps as early as this year, on school facilities as soon as bulldozers begin moving dirt, Wardynski said. The district also must meet desegregation goals in areas such as transportation, discipline and academic offerings.

Putting the Westlawn property into the retail sector should annually pump $50,000 to $60,000 back into tax coffers, as well as remove $40,000 in annual maintenance costs for the district, the superintendent said. The district has now set the wheels in motion to return 11 school properties with 1.2 million square feet of space back on the tax rolls, he added.

"This is a school system that does not hang on to excess properties," Wardynski said.

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